once ben hit ( Cesare by Warspite ) he overestimated the damages and disengaged. After all, of all the italian admirals which have been in duty of the Supreme Command of the Fleet, Inigo Campioni had been the only one to accept a fight against an equally strong english force. And in effect the dama...

Not only did GS have bow thrusters, they were retractable Voith-Schneider propellers. They could have used them for low speed propulsion, should there be a problem with the main propulsion. This is such a rare bow thruster to use, something that Israel's didn't even mention in his book, IIRC. These...

Indeed, as far as I know it has been the hit on the ocean bottom which caused the huge damage on the remaining rudder (which it should be even the cause of the lacking of the port one), not the torpedo hit...

On the rudders - The starboard rudder was not bent into the race of the center propeller by the torpedo hit. One has to carefully study the testimony of Gerhard Junack who I had some written correspondence with before his death. He claimed that he left the middle engine room with the shaft slowly t...

Oh please – let’s try and keep the big old ship within the range of it’s contemporaries. She (or if you prefer: he) was not an Überschlachtschiff. :negative: Ufo, everything you said is right and condivisible, surely Bismarck was not an Überschlachtschiff , but I'm not saying english torpedoes were...

I think it's almost certain that a lot of that damage was done to the already weakened rudders when the ship hit the bottom. For example, the stern didn't fall off while the ship was on the surface, either. Indeed.And there are witnesses, Antonio could report it, that said that while sinking Bismar...

Also if it lies on its side, standing on the keel may be enough to pop it back up; a seagull might not do it. :lol: Of course I talking about small sailboats. Well, if I'm not mistaken it's the standard tecnique to re-capsize it on her keel, isn't it? I hope I could try it this summer, I am serious...

Even italian battleship Vittorio Veneto did it, some hours before the battle off Cape Matapan, when she was hit by a Swordfish near the port rudder.
Simply the damage on Bismarck's rudder was due to the sofisticated gear which controlled the steering and which went irreparabily blocked.